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The article which is called  Music fans will buy songs, says head of free online music site Spotify was published in The Gardian by Alexandra Topping. The author told us about that record sales are down, illegal file sharing persists and a whole generation is getting used to enjoying music for free.
     Daniel Ek, the man behind Spotify, the world's fastest growing online music service, is convinced that fans will still pay for songs they love if they are packaged in the right way. In one of his first interviews since the British launch in February of the "online jukebox" which allows users to listen to songs instantly for free in return for occasional adverts, Ek outlined a new blueprint for the music industry.
    The author underline that Ek is confident that the future is bright if the music industry seizes the digital initiative. Today Brighton's new music festival and convention The Great Escape - think South by Southwest by the seaside - announced that Ek will share a stage with Patrick Walker, director of video partnerships at YouTube or Google at the event next month.
     Then author wrote that The pair will discuss new ways of making money and halting the decline of the music industry. With Spotify seen by many as the most important digital tool to hit the music industry since Napster, and YouTube embroiled in a rights row after removing all premium music videos from its site, it promises to be explosive, said Martin Elbourne, founder and creative director of the Great Escape. Martin Elbourne said to The Gardian that YouTube is now bigger than MySpace for the music industry and Spotify is seen as its potential saviour, to have them sharing a stage is very exciting.
      Bands who have grasped the digital nettle include Radiohead, who turned the industry on its head when they invited fans to pay what they liked to download their album In Rainbows and Coldplay, who released their first single Violet Hill off their new album Viva la Vida exclusively on their website for one week. The album's title track went on to become Coldplay's first British number one based on download sales alone, after it was released solely on iTunes.
       Among other options, fans could download the first nine songs for free, get the entire 36-track album for $5 (£3.37) or opt for one of an edition of 2,500 personally-signed box sets at $300 a piece. And it worked: the deluxe box set sold out in less than 30 hours and the album - available online for free - made $1.6m in its first week of sales.
        Ek said that music industry as a whole can be in a better position than it has ever been and that there has been a massive shift from ownership to access but people will pay for music if packaged correctly and it offers them something special. However, trying to force people to consume music in traditional ways, by prosecuting file sharing sites or the fans themselves for example, was futile and counter-productive.
        After reading this article I should say that Ek is confident it will. In return for access to their catalogues labels will be able to target their audience and market their product like never before, while in exchange for their talent artists will have direct access to their fans, and far more flexibility. And the service on offer is useful enough for users to pay. Although he is far from claiming to be a knight in shining armour Ek is sure that Spotify has its role to play.